Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-08-31
Daily RECORD UNION
THE HOUSTON" CASE DECISION.
The encroachmentsof Federal authority

The eucroachIDentS0 oil L cOcrai authority
upon the rights Of States and of citizens
has been the text for a great deal Of ago
nized complaining upon the part of one
great political party. Capitalization"
it must be confessed, has assumed proper
tions that justifes fears upon the part of
all lovers of republican institutions. The
fathers built upon the foundations Of wis
dom when they set the metes and bounds
OF Federal authority and established the
judicial arm of the Government as a bar
rier to the encroachments of the legisla-
tive. No more striking instance appears
in the history of the country Of an at
tempt to break down this safeguard to
private inalienable rights, than that of the
Federal Railroad Inquisitorial Commits
sion in its efforts to pry into the domestic
concerns Of corporate person to which
the Federal Government, in the case re-
ferred to, sustains only the relation of
creditor
The Federal Court being appealed to by
the Commission to lend its power to force
the debtor to disclose its private personal
concerns, which could in no wise benefit
the security of the creditor, that judicial
body, by the unanimous opinion of the
Judges, not only refuses to become the
servitor and instrument of the legislative
and executive branches, but goes beyond
mere negation and checks the Federal
aggression by declaring the autocratic
claim Of the Commission of authority to
inquire into the private affairs of the
debtor, to be illegal and unsupported by
reason and by law, and to be absolutely
prohibited by the Federal Constitution.
The decision of the Court is of such vital
Importance, and so clearly expository of
the most essential principles of right gov
eminent under republican FORMS that it
ought to be read and commented upon in
every school in the land, since every child
can be made to understand and appreciate
Its important truths. 1t is, altogether, the
~'NNhNcsj liCol anu 4fpSl iOIClDlJ
thesis upon the inalienable right of the
citizen, and the limitations of a Federal
inquisition, that has yet been made The
man who reads it and does not rise from
the perusal feeling stronger as an Ameri-
can and better clothed with the arnor of
his rights as citizen of the republic, must
be so intellectually ordered that he cannot
comprehend the simplest principles of
free institutions.
The Government having aided by land
grants and loans Of its bond credit the
Central Parifc Railroad Company, cor
poration existing by virtue of the laws of
the sovereign State of California, it is a
debtor of the United States, and some por-
tons Of the Indebtedness are presently to
fall due, all of its contracts and obligations
with the Government to date having been
kept good and discharged, and for its debt
the Government is secured by mortgage
upon the road
The legislative branch of the Federal
Government having instituted an inquisi-
torial investigation by Commission into
the ability Of the credit6r to meet its obi
cations, that body propounded TO members
OF the corporate person questions concern
ing the conduct of the private affairs Of
the company and the members thereof
The witnesses refused to comply, claiming
protection against the attempted scrutiny
OF their personal books and papers, as an
invasion c.-one of the most sacred of the
inalienable rights of the citizen.
Furthermore, the Commission attempted
in like manner TO inquire into vouchers on
file with the company approving expendi-
lures by one of its members, but which
were not charged against the accounts es-
sential to the ascertainment of the net
earnings of the railroad company, a per
centage of which is payable to the Gov
eminent. To these interrogatories, which
were made without any regard to the ordi.
nary rules of evidence, and the principles
of law under which competent testimony
may be given, response was also refused.
Thereupon the Commission appealed tc
the Federal Court at San Francisco, and
invoked the judicial power to be exercised
to compel answers to be made. This resor,
WAS had under the legislative Act BY
which the Commission was raised, and
which provides that the Courts shall aid
the Commission in evoking replies to any
inquiry it may see fit to PROFOUND.
The Court at this .iuncture rises in the
majesty of the power and independence
with which it is clothed by the Constitu-
ton for the protection Of inalienable rights
from the encroachments of legislative
authority, and fatty tells the Commission
that the judicial branch of the Govern,
ment is not the servitor Of the legislative
nor bound to do it this service. Nor GOULD
1t do SO were it inclined. since the congti
tutional check upon each branch clearly
defines the limits of the authority of each
Under the Constitution, says the Court
the Railway Commission is not and cannot
be a judicial body; it cannot determine
governmental rights nor those of the rail
way company. That company is an artiii
cial or corporate person of the State OF
California, and as such entitled to and
guaranteed, in its relations with the United
States, the same rights as a natural person
and is subject to the control of the Federal
Government only so far as power may be
lawfully exercised to regulate interstate
commerce, to establish postroads, declare
war, and such specific powers as are ex
posed by the contract between the Govern
ment and the company relating to grants
and credits extended and accepted. The
Courts of the United States are oaen to the
Goyernmeut precisely as to private per
son, and Tor the enforcement of all it
rights, to prevent waste of assets bv {
debtor, and for the punishment of offender.
against it, judicial methods are provided
for the enforcement of any remedie,